Ben Gvir suspecting and accusing Barak and Golan of incitement is incitement

We are ready to renew resisting. We did not relent, slumber, or forget.

Reportedly, a special incitement task force is going to probe former prime minister Ehud Barak and ex-MK for Meretz Yair Golan for comments urging anti-government protests, according to many of the Israel media.

Note that the special task force, consisting of representatives of the police, secret service, military, and National Cyber Directorate, is set up by the one and only far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Merriam-Webster defines incitement as: to move to action, stir up, spur on, or urge on. That, to me, seems too tame. My mother incited me to go do my homework? Oxford’s Learners’ dictionaries put it like this: the act of encouraging somebody to do something violent, illegal or unpleasant. That sounds more like it. The Britannica Dictionary similarly describes it as: to cause someone to act in an angry, harmful, or violent way.

And Barak specifically mentioned not to be violent or do anything illegal.

Golan called for large-scale civil disobedience instead of toothless demonstrations, which, per definition, is non-violent.

To suspect or accuse them of incitement is incitement. To go after them is an attack on the democratic freedoms of us all.

And this by Israel’s the most violent politician on record, allegedly.

Barak and Golan are not exactly my political leaders. For me, they lead Israel’s looney left. But the resistance against this government’s legal coup attempt is very broad, from the far-left to the mid-right of the Likud, from anti-Zionist to National-Religious, Jews, Muslims, and Druze. That’s unity! And Barak and Golan do function as some of its leaders.

Meanwhile, the new calls for extra resistance are not for nothing. The government has started its legal overhaul attempt, just as my daughter predicted a few months ago, at the beginning of the vacation season.

But we did not relent, slumber, or forget. It’s time to demonstrate more and now also disrupt society because letting this happen is worse than a society coming to a standstill. But nothing violent and nothing illegal.

And may I add: Let’s be confident of our victory, that justice for all will win. We already won. The coup is not carried by enough civilians, police, or soldiers. And if in the end we’ll win, we don’t need to be angry now. We only need to secure our victory. No need to panic or go frantic.

One more thing: It’s not personal. Don’t attack reactionary politicians. History won’t even mention them. It’s about ideals and principles of protecting minorities and weaker sections of society against a tyranny of power-hungry politicians but not about the latter. Beleaguering their houses is bullying and won’t accomplish anything but give us a bad name.

When we disrupt society, we must ensure the people we inconvenience will applaud us. We’re for the People. We must give them tea or water and snacks when we block them. Disruption of water, electricity, Internet, and strikes should be under work hours and only for an hour each time, in the beginning, like at schools, universities, hospitals, public transportation, etc. We must apologize for stealing time from the public and explain: you’d better be disturbed now than disempowered and silenced tomorrow.

The right to demonstrate peacefully is guaranteed by articles 21 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political.

Article 8 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights establishes both the right to join a trade union and the right to strike. This is an important part of democracy.

Ben Gvir trying to stifle Barak and Golan is an apt symbol of all of the vile chutzpa this government has in store for all of us, Bibi’s Waterloo.

It’s time to act (or better: strike). With dignity, empathy, legally, peacefully, confidently, patiently, and without name-calling or bullying.

The lawyers, the Bank of Israel, high-tech section, soldiers, MDs, and most of the electorate, we are not mistaken. And the police are on our side too. Don’t annoy them. They are bullied by their minister and not our enemy.

Don’t let them deceive you with their lies. Don’t let them distract you with irrelevant points. Don’t let them discourage you with fake news.

There is no rift in the People. The gap is between the vast majority of us on the one hand and, on the other, this administration that will easily lose 13 seats and their 4-seat Knesset majority at the next election and counting.

Don’t clash with dumb people who have fallen for the administration’s lies. They’ll be grateful for our resistance later. There’s no hurry.

It is not incitement to stand for your beliefs. It is not incitement to protect the weak. It is not incitement to oppose tyranny. It is not incitement to defend democracy. It is not incitement to oppose extremists.

Some may have noticed I never discuss Biden’s or Al Jazeera’s criticism of the coup attempts. Meant well or not, we’re doing fine without them.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, an almost daily blog contributor to the Times of Israel, and previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is (partly) generated by AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. He doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. 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